Blind Bounty
by Mae Silver
Summary: AU. Toph Bei Fong is the Earth Kingdom's most renowned bounty hunter and earthbender. Her mission is to find Katara, master waterbender and significant other of Aang, the Avatar. Obstacles: pryomaniac princess, and an all metal-man. Taang. Undergoing lots of work right now
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: I've had this idea for months, and am really excited to write this. Blind Bounty is my first long story, so a little patience please. :). Instead of giving short, pointless chapters every few days, I upload a longer chapters every Thursday. Any questions will be answered, but the story will reveal most of them. This takes place right after the Southern Raiders. **

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><p><strong>Blind Bounty<strong>

**Chapter One**

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><p>Toph stands at the top of the ravine, black cloak hovering only a foot off the dusty canyon ground. Her bare legs are washed in golden afternoon sunlight, glinting off the spires of rock and stone. Her brow hardens as the sunlight becomes level with her sightless eyes, beads of sweat shimmering on her forehead. She lazily wipes her damp face, and let her arm rest by her side again. A stiff wind blows through her cloak, chilling drops of perspiration, and taking a little bit of red off of her cheeks.<p>

In the middle of the summer, the Great Divide was an unbearable inferno. Each gulch and valley felt like it has just been filled with boiling water, laced with matches, eaten by the sun, then spit out. She isn't bothered a bit by this, or at least that is what it appears to be. Her face is unreadable. Sometimes it looks as if nothing bothers her. If anything, she should be bothered by things more than most people are.

Toph was born blind. She has never seen the fiery orange of a sunset on the horizon, or gazed at the blue sparkling of the ocean. Never before has she seen the warm brown of hardwood floors, or the green of rolling valleys. Well, you get the picture. She couldn't see anything, until a fateful trip had taken her from home to the cave of two blind badger moles.

Badger moles were the first earthbenders, and were just as blind as Toph. They had taught her to feel the earth, and eventually to see with it. After that day, Toph never needed a seeing cane or nurse. She found that earthbending was an extension of herself, not just an opportunity to smash someone with a boulder.

Blindness isn't a problem anymore. At times, she can even see more than others. Dark places, tunnels, and mazes are amazingly easy for Toph to navigate, yet the smallest things, like reading books and walking over sand presented problems.

But, despite the things she can't do, there are things in life Toph can enjoy that no others can. And she is enjoying them right now.

The Great Divide is one of the Earth Kingdoms's natural wonders, yet most only saw about 12% of what's actually there. The rest took "special vision." Toph sits down right on the ledge of the ravine, baked sand warming up her legs. She pushes both feet against the steep ledge. The soles of her feet connect instantly with the earth, and a shockwave traveles through her legs.

Vibrations rattle her feet, turning into traveling waves, reaching out as further and further, until they fade into oblivion. Each formation the Great Divide has can be seen by her dirt-encrusted feet, and every little lizard and mouse could be felt moving. Her connection with the earth is so strong, she can even feel earth that wasn't attached to the ground.

"Ay, kid. You coming back in or not? Them coyotes get real nasty after dark," Someone says in an obnoxious voice. The fact that Toph has better hearing than others made the man's voice even more irritating. She's just trying to enjoy the Great Divide like any other blind earthbender.

"I'm not a kid," she says, frowning. By now Toph's lost count of how many times she's had to explain that.

"Hmph, yeah, right. You don't belong in a bar anyway."

Toph turns her head, and smiles mischievously.

"Are you sure about that?"

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><p>"Chug! Chug! Chug! Chug!"<p>

The rowdy bar participants shout at their top of their lungs, ruddy faces slick with sweaty excitement. Toph holds a near-empty root beer mug over her wide mouth, gulping as fast as she can. Her bare feet are planted firmly on a table, the pounding fists of hyper (or drunk) drinkers only a few feet away. The age appropriate drink-off is nearing the fifteenth mug, Toph in the lead by an entire root beer filled cup. The man she's going up against is two times larger than her size, possibly the biggest guy in the whole tavern.

Toph finishes the last mug, and plops the empty cup hard on the table. She raises her hands in triumph, face raised to the sky, as the loud cheering of the crowd fills her with glory. She reluctantly high-fives her competitor, and then jumps off the table. Toph walks over to the bar owner, and smirks.

"Alright kid, you proved yourself." he grumbles. Toph loves proving adults wrong. "Now here's your gift."

Toph froze as the man pulls out a double broadsword pair from his scabbard, and points the tip at Toph's nose. Before she can move, he brings the sword down on an unsuspecting dragon fruit. She sighs with relief as he began to chop up fruit and ice, eventually transferring it to an ice cup. He never used his hands, not even once.

Toph gives a small, strained smile in an attempt to be polite.

"Thanks." She grabs the bevarage, and after a moment's hesitation, began drinking it greedily. Not one drop spills on her. The bartender is amazed at how confident she is for a blind girl walking alone. There isn't a cane in sight. The mysterious girl looks familiar too. The confidence she carries, or recklessness, isn't alien to the man.

Her face isn't familiar either, seeing how the owner couldn't even see past her dark bangs. But the way she moved is definitely familiar. She walks like she was raised in a wealthy home, and talks intelligently too. Yet the drink-off proved that the way she behaves is extremely different from any stereotype he could think of. Good lord, look at her feet!

It might be the clothes that throws off the man. He observes that she wears comfortable looking green shorts, and a tan/white shirt patched together. It's an outfit made for action, not luxury. To the bartender, the girl is like a patched quilt. One part of her is smooth and as high class as silk. That part of her seems as cold as ice. Yet, below that, in her blind eyes, there is a spark of light.

"So, this is great in all, but I didn't win that drink off just for a smoothie." she says, sipping the last remnants of the delicious drink. The bartender raises an eyebrow at her.

"You're not getting a beer," he says bluntly.

She laughs loudly. "No, I don't want that. What I want is to know where all the crime is in this town."

He tries to hide the surprise on his face, but realized it's pointless. He shook his head.

"There isn't much crime around here. This is just a small passing town." Toph nods, and taps her empty cup. She stares at it for a while, as the two sat in silence. The low murmuring and occasional laughing by the bar goers the only noise to accompany the awkward silence. She suddenly breaks the fragile ice cup, and throws the remaining shards over her shoulder.

"What's in that hidden compartment underneath the counter?" she asks suddenly.

The man freezes. She has to be bluffing. No one should know about that but him.

"Hidden? You must mean where I keep the ice." he says.

Toph frowns. "Well that's what I thought it was, until you lied."

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><p>Toph takes the leather chest that the old bartender finally surrendered to her over to an empty table near a darkened corner, and quickly pushes open the lid. She reaches into the chest, and pulls out what appears to be a book.<p>

"Why on earth would he keep a book this old hidden?" she mutters to herself. She opens it, and is surprised to see that the book is written in some kind of raised font. She recognizes the odd writing as Braille.

She flips through the dusty, bumpy pages. Her fingers brushed over words like "casualties" "murder", even "death." She knows she has a special book as her hand rubs across a certain passage of text, with the words "Crime-Ridden Cities of the Earth Kingdom." Toph finds nothing interesting on the first few pages, and continues to flip through the book.

Part of her job requires that she could be able to read. She never would have known about Braille until she left home. It only took a few weeks for her to learn.

She only needed to learn words that had to do with her job: bounty hunting. Usually the key words were reward, bounty, last seen, and wanted dead or alive. Toph usually didn't pay attention the other useless information, because it made capturing the target (possibly sending them to death) a lot harder. to parents would've immediately thought that she would use her ability to read to run away. Psychos. Toph ran away even before she was able to read.

With the money from Earth Rumble Six, Toph had used her gambling skills to become a millionaire overnight. Well, she already had been one, but all the money she had was hers for once. She had a nice woman tell her where the most crime-ridden town was. It turned out to be a small, near century old town named Juniper Village. The woman, thinking she was trying to avoid that town, pointed it out to her. As soon as she knew where to go, Toph set off for Juniper. She figured that her parents would think she went to an orphanage, and wouldn't even think about finding her in a crime-ridden town like Juniper.

Toph hadn't really expected to become a bounty hunter. She hadn't even known what one was until she had gotten rid of an elusive animal that was picking off the townspeople. No one had been able to track it, because it left such light footprints. A DinosaurPeacock, they called it. Toph couldn't see its face, but ; the townspeople said she was lucky for that. That was the day that Toph had learned if there were enough vibrations in the ground, then footprints, even disturbed piles of leaves, could still be seen.

She also learned that she makes one good bounty hunter.

Toph was able to see within a 5-mile radius, and had the ability to pinpoint a person to their exact location. With just a one-sentenced hint as to where the target might be, Toph could track a man in under three days. Usually less, depending on how long the wanted sign had been up.

Bounty hunters found their target, and prey, by wanted signs hung up around towns. The posters would have usually had only a few sentences, all business. Beneath the poster would be a crudely drawn picture of the wanted criminal. Toph couldn't read these wanted posters. Instead she had others read them aloud.

Suddenly, the page Toph is holding becomes scalding hot, and warm boiling liquid splashes onto her clothes.

"Ow!" Toph shouts, jumping out of her chair. She should've noticed the clumsy waiter's irregular footsteps the instant he came within ten feet of her table. Letting her guard down isn't something that happens often, especially now that she lives alone. She glares in the direction of the waiter.

"Sorry." The waiter mutters in a boyish voice. He bends down hastily to wipe up the mess, nearly knocking down a lamp in the process. Toph notices his footsteps, which weigh about as much as feathers. He can get pushed around as easily as a broomstick.

"Twinkletoes." Toph scowls, and walks away from the table.

People had eyes, they should use them to not trip over things! After a quick decision, she leaves the valuable Braille book on the table, and moves quickly towards the door. She doesn't have any negative feelings about leaving the book on a table; it wasn't like anyone could read it but the blind. Posters were better then that century old book. It's time to leave anyway, something is going on outside.

**Mae Silver :)**


	2. Challenger and Champion

**Blind Bounty**

**Chapter Two**

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><p>Big crowds of burly men means that there is either a new wanted poster out, or a really good fight going on. Either one is a bonus for Toph, but she did prefer a new wanted poster. Little village fights were nothing compared to over-the-top moves in the Ring.<p>

Toph moves toward the big mass of people, and hangs around the edge of the crowd. She keeps her black cloak over her face so no one can recognize her. Adoring fans were a big problem when she first started her job. Random people would just run up to her, automatically assuming she was ready for a fight. Being the Blind Bandit full time wasn't really fun, but she learned that buying a dark mysterious cloak took care of the paparazzi.

She walks closer to the murmuring crowd, and positions herself where she could hear everyone talking.

"_Lot of money…"_

Toph likes that, but is a little concerned at what she heard next.

"…_Not worth the key to the Beifong's bank."_

Now that is saying something! Curiosity peaked, Toph scoots closer to the crowd. By now it was obvious that the crowd is made up of bounty hunters, and they were looking at a more recent wanted poster. For some reason, this particular poster was more interesting than the others.

"_B-but, l-look h-how much t-that's worth."_

She rolled her eyes at the boy stuttering. He would get picked off from the crowd like a grape.

"_And? Do you want to have both of your arms broken and be turned into a pile of ash? No money's worth something that dangerous."_

So a dangerous mission? Against a firebender too. Now what exactly made this mission, or firebender, so dangerous?

"_All of you are crazy! There's not one person in the world who would take on Princess Azula. Even if she does have the Avatar's girlfriend."_

Toph's eyebrows shoot up. _Who is dumb enough to mess with the Avatar? _Toph thinks.

_And especially his girlfriend, if he even had one. This Azula chick must have some power around here, the crowd's gone silent_. If they were going to stand around like mute hog monkeys, she was going to step in.

"I'll do it."

The expected gasp from the crowd comes up, along with a few not so stifled giggles. She realizes she is the shortest person in the crowd, and what appears to be the only girl too. It wasn't like she hadn't been in this situation before. Bounty hunting tends to be a more masculine hobby. Then again, Earth Rumble Six is a "man-hobby" too, but look how good Toph is at that.

"You? You! Ha! You can't even see what's written on this paper!" One of the bounty hunters jests at her. Toph glares at him, as she realizes her cloak hadn't covered her eyes.

She snorts. "And? At least I can do what's on the paper. I'll take on this Azula chick no problem." Toph knows she is boasting, but didn't exactly care.

"You've got to be kidding me, do you even know who Azula is?"

"Yes I do. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be on my way to collect that bounty. Goodbye ladies." Toph says. She turns around, and begins walking in what she hopes is the direction of the reward.

"You can't even take on me." The stranger's voice floats up to her.

"Is that a challenge?" Toph asks, smiling slightly. Baiting people into fighting is easy, considering she had been the champion of Earth Rumble Six for two entire years. The guy isn't very big, and clearly isn't an earthbender either. Toph imagines she can probably teach him a lesson without hurting him that badly. Even if he doesn't want to fight, which Toph seriously doubts, having an arguement with him would be fun enough.

Apparently the guy wants to argue and fight.

"Challenge? There's no challenge here. " He says in a ridiculously 'superior' voice.

"Did you just learn that word today?" Toph coos. The crowd titters at her sarcasm. "Challenge. Challenge." She mocks. The man she is arguing with seems to be frowning. His cheek muscles are seriously distressed.

Ignoring Toph's comments, he breaks right to the chase. "Do you want to fight me?" he asks, walking right up to her. Toph smiles once again.

"Yes." She says. Toph snaps her fingers at the boy who stutters. "You, hold this. Don't drop it or I'll have your head." She orders. The boy quickly takes it for her, and lays it over his arm. Toph positions her arms near her torso, hands pointed to look like praying mantis claws. She crooks her elbows so her claws face her.

Toph's style of earthbending is not based on strength, but on breaking a person's connection with the earth, and using strategy to knock her opponent down. Her moves were very tight, sharp, and quick. She moves like a praying mantis, and attacks like one too.

The man doesn't seem taken back by her praying mantis position, and throws his cloak at the same boy.

"Let's just get this over with." He sighs melodramatically. He reaches behind him, and pulls from his scabbard two long broadswords. After a few unnecessary pretty girl moves, he points one end at Toph. "So you're the blind Blind Bandit." It was supposed to be under his breath, but Toph caught it anyway.

Unfazed, she says nothing, and waits for the man's temper to goad him to attack. She can feel his heart beating as fast as a jack rabbit, the anxiety of the crowd pushing in on her too. _Was he sweating? Probably_. It wasn't really muggy outside, so the sun must be going down now.

Suddenly the stranger lifts his leg in the same way the Boulder would do to start a fight. A small smile spreads across her face, as she raised her foot behind her slightly, and kicked the ground with her heel. A line of earth travels towards the area where his foot should land.

As Toph expects, his foot begins to come down in that area. Soon, though, the direction of the man's foot becomes clear.

Her eyes widen in surprise as in the split second of time, the man dodges Toph's attack, and lands gracefully a few feet from the line of rock. In slight awe and annoyance, Toph waits for him to come back up on the radar. _Blip!_ He's back. The instant his feet land on the ground, he bounces back, and rushes towards Toph.

In a quick defense, Toph flicked three fingers out, and snapped them back. One of her favorite moves in the Ring. In response, a crooked wall of rock juts out of the ground, and strikes the man in the ribs.

Like a ninja, he finds a straight edge in the wall, and gets even closer to Toph.

She observes the way he runs, and gets a better sense of how he might attack. She uses that to her advantage, and picks up a few things. The way the stranger fights is somewhat of a Fire Nation style, just like the Fire Nation man. _Just like the Fire Nation man, blech. _Toph rolls her eyes at the memory of the sad opponet.

At times it almost looks like he is dancing. Also, he is left handed, and his left leg was stronger too. She flicks up another rock wall, this time on his left side.

The man doesn't expect the move, and is thrown roughly to his side. He hits the ground at an odd angle, and bounces across the ground a few times. The instant he comes to a stop, the man jumps back up, limping backwards slightly.

_Got him now. _Toph punches her fists outward, and then punches again. The second punch is to form the rock into an uneven line that makes it impossible for him to get a footing on. Even with his odd gracefulness, he won't be able to avoid the move.

The rock wall does hit him, but not in the way Toph wanted it to. Instead of hitting his side, the rock wall takes an unexpected detour, and hits him square in the butt. He lets out a yowl of protest, and zooms towards Toph again. His footsteps sound angry.

This time, he expects each of Toph's previous moves, and dodges them easily. He must have realized how her style of fighting works, and would use that to his advantage. The stranger jumps, twirls, and flips to avoid being seen by Toph. So far it was working. Toph only saw him every once and a while. Each time he appears to be getting closer, and closer.

"Yah!" the man drops right in front of Toph, and takes a swipe near her face. Toph jerks her head back to avoid the blade, and has to roll backwards to avoid it again. With each quick attack by the stranger, Toph realizes she is being pushed further and further back to a wall.

The challenger realizes it too, and jumps forward, lunges with one blade, the other not too far behind. Toph stumbles backwards, and slams against the wall.

The blade whistles through the air.

Toph clutches the wall, and moved the earth to cover her arms and legs. She raises an armored hand, and blocks the blade. In a silent but quick struggle, she wrenches the broadsword from her opponet's hand, and hurtles it high above his head. He jumps to try and get it, but the sword flies just over his fingertips. The crowd parts, as the sword lodges deep into the ground.

With a heavy stomp to the ground, she punches the man's gut with her fortified fist, and follows through with the punch, until the two land where they started the battle.

For a moment of silence, Toph's presses her fist into the man's stomach until he stops struggling, and gave out a cough. His grip slacked on his single broadsword. Toph let the surrounding armor on her fist drop to the ground, and stands up. The crowd around her surges towards her, chanting her name.

"Blind Bandit! Blind Bandit!" they chant, stretching the "I" in blind. They throw gold pieces in her direction, completely ignoring the loser of the fight. He had gotten up, thank goodness. It might not seem like it, but Toph actually cares whether or not the stranger had gotten trampled. She is ruthless in battle, but not as a person. Despite the tempting chant of the crowd, Toph finds that she is more worried about her opponent than how much the crowd likes her.

And the fact that there are so many vibrations around her bothers her too. Toph won't be able to pick out certain people if they don't like the fact that she had won the fight. Bounty hunters love revenge; Toph would know. She is starting to get really uncomfortable being around this many people. It had to be dark outside by now, and she still hasn't found somewhere to stay the night. It might have to be an earth tent instead of a comfortable inn.

Toph parts the tight crowd, and makes her way to the fallen challenger. The crowd makes a tight circle around her, murmuring curiously like bees. They probably are expecting her to finish him off. Toph was a crowd pleaser… she might consider it.

"Unless any of you want what he got, scram!" she snarls at the crowd. Surprisingly, the crowd complies, grumbling the entire way out. The stuttering boy carefully hands Toph the two cloaks, and runs away as fast as he can. Toph waits until they are all gone, and sits down near the challenger.

On closer inspection, Toph notices that the man isn't really a man. His lightweight body type fits the frame of a muscular teenager. No wonder he was able to avoid her attacks so easily.

She hears a hitch in his breath, and him shuffle a little.

"I'm surprised you're even breathing." Toph surmises, tilting her head at him. "What's your name?"

"Zu-Kuzon." So called "Kuzon" stutters.

"Okay ZuKuzon, you're breathing, so I think I'll leave now. Your cover up is over there, and you can take a few of those gold pieces. I have enough of those already." She says sarcastically. She stands up to walk away. Only a few steps later, does Kuzon call out again.

"Hey, wait. I need to ask you something."

"Nope. Not interested." Toph says without turning around. She keeps walking in the direction of the path that took her away from the Divide, and closer to a nearby Earth Kingdom town.

"It has to do with that wanted poster."

She stops dead in her tracks.

"I'm listening." Toph turns around. "Before you tell me anything, what's your real name?"

"I can't say." The teenager says. He crosses his arms defiantly.

_Way to be hot headed. _Toph shrugs. "Suit yourself. I'm outta here." She turns around and lazily waves her hand over her head.

_Three. Two. One._

"You're not going to believe me." He admits.

"Try me."

Another melodramatic sigh. "Fine. My name is Zuko. Prince Zuko."

Toph's eyebrows shoot up, but she keeps her face impassive. Why would Prince Zuko be in the Earth Kingdom? Doesn't he know how much the citizens despise him? She could end him, maybe ending the war.

Toph thinks of these things, but decides against all of them. If she wanted to help win the war, she would've joined the army.

"What are you doing here, and how are you supposed to know the Avatar?" she asks, getting right down to business.

"Well it's a pretty long story…. But basically the avatar allowed me to join his group…_cough._ Just come on, the avatar is only a mile from here." He begins walking away.

"Tsh. A mile too long. You bring the Avatar here, and then we'll talk." she says. Zuko tightens, and says in a strained voice. "But it's dark out here, how do I know you won't try to make a break for it?"

"I'm not a baby, and I'm too lazy to run anywhere. Now go get the Avatar."

Zuko shrugs, and begins walking down the same path Toph had started on. "I'll be back, don't move." He says in a somewhat parently voice. Toph twitches slightly, but manages to grind out the words "Sure, sure."

Toph listens to his footsteps on the dusty canyon road, until they become another pair of lonely feet on the empty highway.

Mae Silver :)


	3. Tea, Advice, and Avatars

**Bonjour all. Mae Silver here, author of this little story. Okay let me get right to buisness: reviews.**

**I'm not concerned about reviews, I'm really more concerned about hits and visitors. Buuuuut... I did get a review last chapter and literally shrieked at my sister I GOT A REVIEW! LOOK! So thank you SO MUCH to EmmaThe Master'sDaughter for your wonderful r****e****view. **

**The biggest thanks goes to HeyI'mTalkingToYou for being my first beta reader and without a doubt the best out there. She's probably too busy to read this, but I couldn't have gotten anywhere without your help. Merci beacoup, Thank you very much. Now you all enjoy this chapter! **

**Chapter Three**

**Blind Bounty**

_Thump._

The already ticked off bartender looks up. As soon as the noise begins, it stops. He resumes wiping the soiled counter with a faded gray rag. His first thought is it must be thunder.

_Thump. _There it is again! he thinks angrily. The noise isn't coming from the sky.

_**Thump.**_

He grumbles to himself, and crosses the bar to find out who's making all the racket.

_Thump._

"Of course it has to be you," he growls.

Toph lifts her hand, then allows it drop to the ground. A sizeable rock rises, then falls to the ground loudly. Her facial expression can be described as cryptic, bordering between thoughtful and destructive.

_Thump._

"Well, are you going to stop?"

_Thump._

She doesn't give him a response.

He sighs, and walks back inside. The swinging wooden doors crash behind him.

Toph hasn't even bothered to notice the man. She is completely lost in thought.

Zuko had left her about two minutes ago, leaving Toph with the hope that she might, just might, meet the Avatar.

Without warning, a strong gust of frigid air finds a way through Toph's oversized cloak, and chills her to the bone. _It was nearly a hundred degrees out here before… it might start to rain soon._

There isn't any way for Toph to see what the sky is doing, until rain or snow or hail fell onto her. She usually has to guess what the weather is going to be like.

Before she can experience any weather phenomenon, she juts her arms out in an upside down v-shape. Two slabs of rock join together to make a basic tent. She hunches her shoulders, and a wall rises in the back. Immediately Toph feels warmer. The tent is so useful because it retains heat from the day. It's like pulling up two hot coals from a fire.

The back of her tent is pressed up against the remains of a crumbling sandstone building. The ceiling is missing, and the building it belongs to is now long gone, as are half of the structures in the nameless town. It's one of the creepiest places Toph has ever had to stay in. Anyone could be lurking in the shadows, just waiting to attack her. However, no one could sneak up on her, unless they magically fell from the sky.

"A penny for your thoughts?" a voice floats to her ears. Toph raises an eyebrow, and tunes her attention to the shape sitting a few feet away. His hand is clutching what smells like a strong, smoky kind of tea.

She had seen the shape earlier, and didn't really pay much attention to it. Every town has a bum, and they are almost all wired the same way. First they find an excuse to talk, then he'd compliment her, then ask her for money.

"No." she says bluntly. If she gives a mean enough answer, they usually go find someone more gullible.

"Woah, woah, just asking a question." The elderly bum says, raising his arms in defense. She sniffs, and reclines her feet on a raised rock in the form of a tree stump.

"Well don't."

The man contemplates her short responses, and takes a sip of his tea. Toph can't help but wrinkle her nose at the strong scent. The smell reminds her of the tea her mother would drink. She had told Toph that it was called… was called…

"Do you not like the scent of my Lapsang Souchong tea?" he asks.

"…"

"It smells like a campfire, but tastes like heaven."

"…"

"…"

"…"

"Why are you still looking at me?" Toph demands. "I can feel you looking at me."

"No reason."

Toph angrily crosses her arms. He's probably staring at her small, (but dirty) feet, wondering why a kid like her is out on the streets and not in a home. She brings her legs back inside the tent.

"Stop looking at me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like I'm too young to take care of myself." Toph surprises herself by confronting the man. She doesn't even know if he's looking or not. All she has to do is ask, and she'll be able to tell if he is lying or not.

"I never said that."

Her eyebrows shoot a mile up her face. She quickly regains her defenses.

"Then what are you still staring at?"

"I don't know, I'm still stuck on how good this tea tastes."

Toph laughs, an odd noise she hasn't been able to hear in weeks. It's not the kind of laugh that she uses after winning a fight or goading someone to, but… a normal one. It feels good and weird at the same time.

This hobo definitely isn't like others.

"Hmm. I've never thought of tea like that before." Toph says, wheezing for air. The first sip had her hooked, and she had drunk the entire serving without a break. She takes a deep swig of her second serving. The taste is smoky and strong. There's just a tad bit of sugar too. It tastes like heaven, with a whisper of spices and honey.

"Understanding tea comes with age, earthbender." The hobo says. "If you apply knowledge like that to the obstacles in life, nothing will bring you down."

Toph rubs her teacup with her thumb, and rummages through all the floating thoughts in her head.

_Avatar, helpful hobo, and really good tea. _Yup. Her life is really normal right now.

"So if I tell my next opponent how to brew Souchong like this, I'll win?"

The man laughs, a booming noise that ricochets off the walls and makes her ears throb.

"I wouldn't be surprised. Tea is amazing," he admits.

"Thank you," Toph says, handing the mug back to the man.

"For what?"

She pauses.

"For talking with me..." she decides. "Your advice was very helpful."

"Was it now?" he contemplates this for a second. "Well I'm glad I could help a fellow blind friend out." He says, packing up his tea. Toph's eyes widen in shock, but the words have been stolen right out of her mouth.

"With age, with age." He gives her a mock salute, and leaves with her mouth hanging wide open. His footsteps patter out silently. The seeing cane he uses seldom hits an obstacle, and he makes it out the town without tripping once.

_Wow, that conversation lasted much longer than I thought it would. _Toph thinks, allowing her earth tent to crumble. She brushes off the persistently clingy dust that would be back the next day. A giggle almost escapes her mouth as she realizes her last bath was the day before she left home.

Even the sad memories from home can't bring her down. The wise, strong words of the blind man are going to stay with her forever, she is sure of it. Toph turns to walk away—

"Hello Toph! I'm Aang."

Toph screams at the top of her lungs, and flails her arms around until she realizes what's happened. _Someone snuck up on me! What kind of sick joke is this?_

The feet belong to a boy about her height, probably around the same age. The Houdini boy hardly puts any weight on his feet, providing Toph with a substitute name for him.

"Well Twinkletoes! Has anyone ever told you it is rude to sneak up on people?" she demands, crossing her arms and glaring/glowering at him.

He seems slightly flabbergasted at her rude response, but before he can respond, a familiar pair of feet come into the scene.

"Do you have to shout at him?"

Toph shrugs.

"Hey, if you don't want me to be rude, then just bring me the—"

"This is the Avatar." Zuko interrupts. There's a bit of irritation in his voice.

"Oh..." she says softly. This wasn't supposed to happen when she met the Avatar.

"Yeah…"

The air is stressed and edgy with the awkwardness of the situation.

"So—SO—SOOOO!" Both Toph, Aang, and Zuko boom, trying to break the ice. The only thing it breaks is the chance to start a real conversation. Toph sighs impatiently. Aang and Zuko are most likely staring at her like she's going to be the one to start talking. Nope. Nu-uh.

Her stubborness isn't the best option.

Zuko looks around. Aang dribbles a rock. Toph coughs.

"What?" Zuko asks, as if she had muttered something underneath her breath.

"What?" Aang says this a little too slow, and cringes.

"I didn't say anything..." _Maybe I should._

She sighs, but her face lights up at a sudden idea.

"So Aang, how much earthbending experience do you have?"

"Well, you see, I… uhhhh."

"Uhh?"

"I have a little." he squeaks. Toph's mouth quirks. He's lying.

"Right, right."

Another lapse of silence.

From somewhere in the town, a baby wails.

_Fine. Let me try something else._

Before Toph can say anything, Aang clears his throat.

"Well Toph, I'm glad that I finally got to meet you. We should probably get to camp, it's getting dark." "Yeah, lead the way."

**Any comments, questions, or rants will be answered. :)**


	4. His Perspective

**Chapter Four**

**Blind Bounty**

* * *

><p><strong>Suki <strong>

It's high afternoon, hot and humid. Aang's spindly shadow stretches across the unforgiving terrain, twisting as he marches back and forth. He can't resist pacing, it's his way of keeping the wheels in his brain turning. There isn't much room between Appa and Suki, but that doesn't stop him from restlessly pacing. His dark gray eyes pierce the ground, stormy and malovent. Dust rises into the air like an outstretched claw.

"Aang, sit down, meditate or something." Sokka barks, glaring at the back of Aang's arrow.

Aang stops and stares at Sokka like he's a bowl of leechie nuts. Sokka shrinks back against his predator-like gaze.

"Sit? Sit! How can I sit! One of my closest friends is halfway across the globe in the clutches of some blue fire shooting pyromaniac! How can I sit!" With each word, Aang comes closer to Sokka until he has his shirt balled into his fists. "How can I sit with that, huh Sokka? Huh?"

Suki gently pries Aang's clammy hands off of Sokka's shirt.

"Just a little break Aang." She explains, smiling at him as one would to calm a rabid dog. Her cool, blue eyes halt his tirade. He slumps down onto a log, and buries his face in his hands, muttering. Suki hasn't known Aang for long, but knows that acting like this isn't normal for him. If he decides to grow any hair, it'll turn gray with the stress he is forcing on himself.

What would Katara say?

What could she say?

* * *

><p><strong>Zuko<strong>

No one notices Zuko slink away from the group and began to trek westward. His vivacious saffron eyes hold nothing but purpose, flaming in the late sun. A warm current of air nearly blasts him off his feet. Nothing, not even unpredictable weather, is going to come between Zuko and dinner.

The humidity and hunger is rubbing Zuko the wrong way, putting him in an even crabbier mood. Hungry, tired, and uncomfortable, the prince barges into town like a freight train.

Just as he reaches his destination, the sun begins glowing orange and slipping down to the horizon. Thick, violent looking clouds swirl around like a demonic halo, lightning occasionally flashing outwards. It obscures the light, only allowing a few scarlet shafts to peek out.

He can see why no one bothered to name the place, it's a dump. There's a hobo sleeping in rubble (with tea, he notices), trash blowing everywhere, and only two attractions: a small bar and a crumbling stone wall. The swinging doors of abandoned saloons swing around crazily, creaking and clapping against the walls. Despite the bait of a cold drink, the stone wall seems to be more popular than the bar. Zuko walks inconspicously towards the wall.

Tacked onto the wall are an array of posters, varying from small town robbers to earth kingdom's most wanted. Despite himself, Zuko searches for his own wanted poster.

None.

But...

The sharp intake of breath is unmistakable. Zuko stares at the handmade poster, eyes radiating hatred. The illustrator has drawn the picture of his sister quite accurately. Her normal, white teeth are painted pointy and black, reaching down to her shoulders. The eyes are black and beady, staring outwards like a crow.

_Azula._

His sister's accurate appearance, however, is not what makes Zuko start to sweat.

Next to the picture of Azula is a man about 7 feet tall, with a very familiar looking build. It doesn't take Zuko long to figure out: it's Combustian man, but there's a huge difference in him...he's all metal now.

_That means he survived...__And he also must be with Katara._

Zuko has no time to think this over with the crowd's loud jabbering.

_"Lot of money…"_

_"…Not worth the key to the Beifong's bank."_

The name rings a bell.

_"B-but, l-look h-how much t-that's worth."_

_"And? Do you want to have both of your arms broken and be turned into a pile of ash? No money's worth something that dangerous."_

_"All of you are crazy! There's not one person in the world who would take on Princess Azula. Even if she does have the Avatar's girlfriend."_

A thick silence settles over the group.

_"I'll do it."_

Zuko whirls around to glare at the person dumb enough to take on the mission. His eyebrows twitch when he sees that the voice belongs to a short girl, with the same cloak as him. She has strikingly foggy eyes, and they look especially large on her small face. Her dark, unkempt bangs cover her eyes.

"You? You! Ha! You can't even see what's written on this paper!" someone jests from the crowd.

She snorts. "And? At least I can do what's on the paper. I'll take on this Azula chick no problem."

Wow. Just who does this girl think she's made out of?

Zuko can't help but get involved.

"You've got to be kidding me, do you even know who Azula is?"

"Yes I do. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll be on my way to collect that bounty. Goodbye ladies." the girl says.

Zuko's anger begins to boil. His face turns an amazing level of red, and he balls his hands into fists.

She's going to get killed if she tries that! Azula is ruthless, and wouldn't hesitate to hurt the girl. Zuko has to stop her, even if it means-

"You can't even take on me." He challenges. The instant it comes out, he regrets it. He has not ever, and ever will, hit a girl. Azula's a different story, but that doesn't matter at the moment. He won't hurt her, just try to scare her off.

"Is that a challenge?"

"Challenge? There's no challenge here. " He doesn't know, but he thinks that he's doing a pretty good job baiting her into the fight. His only worry now is getting maimed.

"Did you just learn that word today?" The crowd titters at her sarcasm. "Challenge. Challenge."

"Do you want to fight me?" he asks, walking right up to her. Toph smiles once again.

"Yes." She says. She snaps her fingers, and points at the stuttering boy.

"You, hold this. Don't drop it or I'll have your head." She orders.

Zuko is amused at the power she has over the boy. He looks like he's about to pee his pants as he takes the cloak, and lays it over his arm. He shrugs, and chucks his cloak at the same boy. She positions her arms near her torso, hands pointed like pinchers.

Zuko has seen that kind of style! Suddenly everything connects. Beifong, earthbending, little girl?

She's the blind bandit, champion of Earth Rumble Six, and more recently, bounty hunter.

"Let's just get this over with." He sighs melodramatically. He pulls out his two double broadswords, and does a few tricks to warm his hands up. Finally, he points the other end at Toph.

"So you're the Blind Bandit."

Unfazed, she says nothing, and waits for him to make the first move.

His heart begins beating quickly, thumping loudly. He's going to fight an earthbending master, and no one is here to see it. If he wants to win, he can't show how nervous he is. Zuko knows he's in for a real fight when a small smile spreads across her face. A surprising thought suddenly comes across his mind.

_Maybe, just maybe, she can help us._

Before his foot can even rest on the ground, a line of uneven rock speeds towards him. Zuko reacts in a split second, and jumps to the right. He sees the confused look on the bandit's face, and knows how he is going to win.

_Stay out of her vision, and stay in the air as long as possible. Be unpredictable._

Her eyes widen in surprise as Zuko lands gracefully a few feet from the line of rock. Annoyance and awe is written all over her face. The instant he lands, he rushes towards the girl.

In a quick defense, she flicks three fingers out, and a crooked wall of rock juts out of the ground, and strikes the man in the ribs.

Zuko winces as unforgiving rock punches him in the ribs. He somehow manages to find a foothold, and gets even closer to his target.

_Break her roots, and this fight is over._

Just as Zuko thinks he's in the clear, he is _really _hit in the side, and tossed across the ground like a rock. His leg takes most of the hit, but he manages to jump up and limp backwards.

_I'm toast._

The girl punches her fists twice.

"Yeeeouwch!" Zuko rubs his sore bottom, and glares at her. Now angered, Zuko runs towards her with the speed of a dragon.

He uses his previous strategy, and uses any technique he can to avoid being seen. When he's right in front of her, he makes a swipe near her face. The bladewould miss her face by a few centimeters.

"Yah!" Zuko drops right in front of her. She jerks her head back to avoid the blade, and has to roll backwards to avoid it again. With each quick attack, he realizes she is being pushed further and further back to a wall.

Zuko lunges to plant the blade right above her right shoulder. She stumbles backwards, and slams against the wall.

The blade whistles through the air.

Zuko's sword does hit rock, but it's not what he expects. The bandit is completely covered in the hard surface, including her hand. He struggles to loosen her grip on his sword, but looses. In a silent but quick struggle, she wrenches the broadsword from her opponet's hand, and hurtles it high above his head.

Zuko jumps to try and get it, but the sword flies just over his fingertips. The crowd parts as the sword lodges deep into the ground.

With a heavy stomp to the ground, she punches Zuko's gut with her fortified fist, and follows through with the punch, until the two land where they started the battle. Black dots swarm over his vision, until it is compeltely dark. Zuko falls asleep to the sound of the crowd cheering. He gives out a cough.

"Blind Bandit!"

"_blind bandit..."_

* * *

><p><strong>Present<strong>

"So you got beaten by a kid?" Sokka asks, highly amused. Zuko glares at him.

"She's an earthbending prodigy, and I can't hit a girl."

"Then what about Azul-"

"_Azula's a different story!" _Zuko shouts, interrupting Suki's innocent question. He looks years older by the way the light is hitting his face.

The group is seated around a warm, roaring fire. Glowing embers fly high into the sky, disappearing in the minefield of dazzling blue stars. A white, speckled haze dances across the sky; the Milky Way.

"Okay Zuko, you fake-fought the Blind Bandit, lost, and now want to bring her into the group? What is she going to do, fight all our enemies for us?" Aang demands. Zuko's eyesbrows shoot up. He's really taking Katara's kidnapping hard.

"I know it sounds crazy-"

"It is crazy." Aang intterupts.

"But I think she can help us."

That shuts them up. Aang is the first to recover.

"How?"

"Toph is the Earth Kingdom's best bounty hunter, and her fighting style is one I've never seen before."

"Woah woah, so Toph is the Earth Rumble Six champion, and bounty hunter? Wow." Sokka looks impressed, Suki as well. Aang looks a little skeptical though.

"Is she better than June?" Suki interrogates.

"Uh, sure." How is Zuko suppose to know? He just has a gut feeling about her, and he doesn't get those often. The group looks like they're warming up to the idea.

"Alright, where is she?"Sokka asks.

"At town."

The group freezes again, and glares at Zuko.

"WHAT?"

"You left the mercenary there?"

"She's probably out of town by now!"

"Well she said she wanted to meet the Avatar! So I came back here to tell you guys."

_"Was the story really necessary then?" _Sokka mutters. Suki glares at him.

"I think it was." Aang says. "I definitely wouldn't have gone if I didn't know that."

Aang stands up with renewed hope, and a smile brighter than the sun. "Let's go."

* * *

><p><strong>Thank you to Seamew for your critique and amazing advice. I'll try not to make the same mistakes, and I'm really glad you're enjoying this! Merci to all my other readers too. :)<strong>


	5. Terra Poisoning

**EDIT: For those of you who have story-alerted this story, I had to re-post it a few times before it looked presentable. This is the final version :).**

* * *

><p><strong>Chapter Five<strong>

**Blind Bounty**

* * *

><p>The thing about fatigue is not that it wears down the body, but the mind as well.<p>

_I can hardly piece a sentence together…let alone walk in a straight line._

It pulls down on her body like gravity. She leans forward, knees buckling. Toph's footsteps lag behind the others, so far unnoticed. Her bare feet drag over the soil, making small piles and thick lines in the dirt.

_Shoulders, falling, need to rest… _Toph's shoulders and heels of her feet ache as if someone had hit them with a mallet over and over again. The dull ache blurs her feets' vision. Her eyes are irritated, and there's a thick swirling sensation in her head.

_Why am I so tired? I haven't even started this mission yet._

A dull, roaring sensation is steadily building inside her ears, absorbing most of the noise. The roaring reminds her of high tide inside a large, hollow cave. Her nose doesn't seem to be the working either. She can't even smell the scent of her own sweat. It seems as if a thick, wet blanket has been thrown over her senses.

"Hey Toph, I've been meaning to ask how you get around." Aang asks.

Her eyebrows shoot up.

"Erm. What do you mean by that."

"How do you see?" He doesn't pick up on Toph's suggestive meaning.

Toph sighs, partially in relief, and partially to hide her laugh.

"I don't see like most people do. I see using my feet and the vibrations in the earth."

"That's amazing!" Aang exclaims. "Where did you learn how to do that?" Toph resists his flattery and shrugs nonchalantly.

"Badger moles. The blind stick together."

_Just looking out for a fellow blind person._

Wiping the thin sheen of sweat off her forehead, she smiles slightly at the thought of the kind, blind old man. He had given her tea, incredible advice, and a sense of safety.

_Why couldn't my father be like that?_

Her smile slips from her face like a silk veil.

_My father will never.__.. __**ever **__understand me._

"The animals? I thought they only lived in caves." She realizes Aang had said that at least 15 seconds ago. She coughs and answers.

"They do. I ran away from home."

"To learn from them?"

She frowns. "I ran away from home."

And that seems to end the conversation. For now there's silence.

Something suddenly tickles Toph's throat, and she clears her throat. She swallows a few times, and the feathery feeling seems to go away.

Then..

"_Heggh, Heggh. Kah! Kah!" _Short, painfully hard coughs cause her stomach to arch inwards, air being shoved out of her lungs. She wheezes, trying to regain some of her lost oxygen.

"Hey, calm down now." Zuko says, mistaking her coughing for an anxiety attack.

"Calm-_kah, kah- _down?" she asks. The coughing fit stops, and she sucks in a long stream of air. The arrival of fresh air renews the tickling sensation, which has turned into a steady burn. Toph's eyes begin watering, and her knees quaver.

"Woah, are you okay."

She feels feverish and freezing at the same time. Suddenly a normal-temperatured hand perches on her shoulder.

"Toph, you need to sit down. Your face is really red."

"No…_wheeze.._kidding." She falls ungracefully on her behind, and clutches the ground for support. A bead of sweat finds a pathway down her nose, making it tickle terribly.

Suddenly a thick clump is stuck in her throat. Unexpectedly, her violent coughing starts turning into dry sneezing.

_Choo! Choo! _

"Stand clear!"

"ACHOO!" The thing making her throat thick and ticklish is evicted, and placed on the ground with a sickening splat. She spits, the sour taste gone.

"Wait, hold on what is that?" Zuko asks. His voice sounds extremely alarmed, and makes her head feel inflamed.

"What is what?"

"That!" Zuko's finger points to where she had sneezed out some odd…material.

"That's a strange color…it almost looks-"

"Orange." Zuko finishes. "Toph did you eat any kind of fruit in the past few days?"

From her position on the ground, she pauses, and then nods slowly.

"I won a drink in a bar."

Zuko mutters something under his breath.

"That's it! Isn't cactus juice orange?"

"Some plants are. But there shouldn't be any cactus juice around this area." Aang says.

"Nothing grows here." Toph says. "All the food is imported."

"Then you might have terra poisoning."

"Terra poisoning?" she thunders, standing up. A cool hand steadies her as she wobbles, probably Aang's.

"Yes…though it's very unlikely to get it from just a plant. Did the bartender add anything to it, like a smokey kind of flavor?"

Toph shakes her head, and pushes the hand off her shoulder.

"No. He just…"

_Do you like my Lapsang Souchong?_

It takes a while for even shock to settle into her system.

"Noo…" she groans. Why on earth did she think it was okay to drink that tea? It smelled funny and tasted funny too.

It couldn't have been. Toph has a thing about trust. It's only given to a few people, and he had been one of them. How could she even know that he was blind? He could've been sent by one of her many enemies…

She wants to cry. Trust? Trust? It's no longer anything to her anymore.

"I think I knew who did this." She says, sucking in an agonizing breath.

"Who?" they ask at the same time.

She shakes her head, and begins walking forward. "A person I met. He seemed harmless, in fact we had a lot in common. I was stupid enough to trust him." She says.

"Was he significant to you in anyway?"

_Like a father to me?_

"No." she sighs. Another wave of the poison weakens her joints, and almost brings her down to her feet again. Two arms catch her, and haul her to her feet again. The thick scent of orange and lemon grass coats her nose.

_That must be Aang. Zuko smells like amber._

"Toph are you able to walk?" he asks. She nods, despite the dizzy swirling of her consciousness. Aang releases her.

"Okay. If you need anyth-"

"I got it Twinkle Toes." She barks angrily. He retreats a little, and his heart rate slows as if he's been offended by her words. He recovers quickly, and moves away from her. If he's angry at her he doesn't show it or say anything. Zuko speaks up once more.

"We're here." He mutters.

"Good. I'm hunnnggrry! What's for dinner?" Toph asks, a little bounce in her step. She feels new heartbeats, and judging by the signals sent by her feet, there's a male and female at the camp. They haven't moved in a long time.

"Oh, hello. Are you the blind Bandit?" The girl of the camp speaks up.

"That would be me." Toph says, stretching her arms high above her head. She yawns broadly, then crosses her arms across her chest, and grin/snarls at the person who was just talking.

"Oh...well...I'm Suki." she points towards the boy next to her. "That's Sokka. What's your name?" the girl named Suki tries to lighten the mood.

"Toph. Toph Beifong." she says, waving a hand to stop anymore incoming questions. Suki catches on, and stays quiet. The boy next to her, however, does not.

"Beifong? What kind of last name is that?"

The young girl crosses her arms for the millionth time of that minute, and glares at the boy.

"When you're rich you can name yourself anything you want." she says quietly.

How dare he judge her family's name?

How dare he-

"Enough chit-chat! Let's eat!" Sokka exclaims, moving towards a heat source. No doubt it's a small campfire.

A wide smile breaks across her face, as the flip flopping sensation in her stomach ceases.

Terra poisoning? Oh please, Toph's hungry and no measly tea is going to keep her away from a nice dinner.

**Now how will this "Terra" poisoning affect Toph? Sorry for updating late! I had a summit after school for my group, SGU. In case your curiosity is peaked I have a link on my chapter had a lot of dialogue, and might have seemed a little harder to read. It does, however, bring a twist to the plot that I hadn't originally thought of. **

_**A good writer only uses as many words as **__**needed. **_**Enough words? Not enough? You, the reviewers, decide. **


	6. Toph the Hunter

**This one has a few flashbacks that are all in italic paragraphs. I hope this gives you a little insight of how Toph works and what's to come. **

**Disclaimer: I do not, nor ever will, own Avatar the Last Airbender.**

* * *

><p>Blind Bounty<p>

Chapter Six

* * *

><p><strong>Other POV<br>**

_In her dream, she's floating in space, anchored down by a large unidentifiable object. She's on her back, knuckles tense and white. Something in her throat constricts, and she's thrown from her dream like a rag doll…_

…_And immediately placed inside another dream. This time she's trudging up a hill that's almost at a ninety degree angle. Mud coats her ankles, tightening around her ankles and forcing her back down the way she came from. Large chunks of sharp hail rain from the sky in bursts of furious downpour, scraping her arms and hands. She's almost to the building in front of her…So close._

_And yet so far. She's suddenly put into a tiny, claustrophobic-inducing sized room, with her ankles and hands shackled. The irregular thumping and rising of the room tells her she's not in a building, but…a vehicle of some sort. It's moving at a very fast pace, obliterating anything in its path. The heavy chains on her feet and wrists weigh her down heavily. Suddenly a door opens, and two pairs of feet enter the scene._

"_Get up." One of them hiss. When she doesn't respond right away, she's jerked to her feet by her shackled wrists. _

"_I said get up you filthy Water Tribe peasant! There's no Avatar to save you now. You're under my mercy."_

_With all the dignity left in her soul, she glares at the evil girl in front of her. Hatred radiates from her eyes like steam from the wet ground. _

"_Mercy? Mercy? You have none. And the Avatar is on his way. Untie me now to save yourself the trouble."_

_Giggles escape from the other unshackled girl. "Now why would I do that? You're nothing but bait for the Avatar, and I can't have you escaping."_

"_Why would I escape? I'll fight you right here right now."_

_The man next to the despicable girl steps forward, but is stopped by a dismissive hand wave._

"_Stay there. She's no threat to us." With an evil smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes, she flounces out of the cabin, and slams the door behind her. The other girl glares at the door until she can no longer hear footsteps._

* * *

><p><strong>Toph POV<strong>

There are some mornings where Toph notices her herself before noticing her surroundings. She blinks rapidly, eyelids lowering and rising like thick, opaque curtains in a fierce gale. It takes a great effort to open her eyes completely, and rub the irritating sleep out of the corners. The part near the edge of her eye is laced with dry skin, continiusly chafed by a never ending wind. Something tickles her feet, and she reaches down to shoo it away.

_Probably just a bug. _She curls up on the hard surface of the ground, conserving her body heat.

Her suscpicion rises when there seems to be a bug on her foot, face, arms, and legs at the same time. That's when she realizes she's on something furry…and alive. Toph gives a shout of surprise, and bolts upwards. She clutches the animal beneath her with her toes, trying to get a better sense of where she is and where the beast is going.

Well first off she knows she's in the sky. And second off, the same people from last night: Sokka, Aang, Suki, and Zuko.

_Rggggghhhh._ A loud groaning noise fills her eardrums, vibrating them quickly. She slaps her hands over her sensitive ears, wincing.

"What kind of animal is this?" Toph shouts loudly.

Aang is at the front, guiding the animal with steady, controlled hands. Sokka is a few feet in front of her, Suki resting on the other side of him. Zuko's wide awake. His heartbeat is loud and steady, despite his hot temper. It's somewhat calming, hearing the orchestra of heartbeats. Aang's heart beats like a hummingbird, Sokka's metrical hammering, and Suki's irregular, loud pounding. Their body heat seeps into her, as well as a calming sensation of… acceptance?

She dismisses the idea, and impatiently awaits the answer to her question.

"It's a flying bison. You'll get used to him in no time." Sokka answers, unleashing a monsterous yawn. He stretches, casually draping his arm around Suki's shoulders. She punches him playfully on the shoulder, giggling. If it wasn't obvious that they were together it is now. Especially by the way the two's heartbeat rates skyrocket when they're within reach of each other.

_Despite her parents' many arguments, mainly over her, the same thing happens each time her father discreetly lays his hand over his mother's. She guesses they were smiling at each other._

"Oh…What's his name?"

"This is Appa." Aang pipes up from the front. The lumbering beast beneath him groans in response, making the boy laugh.

"Where'd you get him?" she asks warily.

"Appa was with me when I was frozen in that iceberg for 100 years. We've been together since I was only a little kid; even before I knew I was the Avatar." She nods in consideration, but has taken an extreme caution to animals; furry or not. Appa seems like a nice flying bison thing, but the only animal she cares for are badgermoles.

"In speaking of Appa…where's Momo?" Zuko questions. Everyone pauses to mull over this, except for Toph.

"Is Momo by any chance a small animal with tiny wings on his arms?" They all nod.

"Yes…"

"He's underneath Appa, on his…" she frowns…"left third leg."

Curious chittering comes from beneath the beast, becoming louder as the small lemur climbs up Appa's thick hide. Momo plants himself right next to Toph, poking her with a small paw. He chatters at her, expecting an answer.

"How do I shut this thing up?" she asks casually.

"Here, give him this."

Something suddenly thunks Toph on the head. "Ow! What was that?"

Whatever it was Momo's already snatched it away. Cracking noises come from the object as the lemur works on it.

"He has pretty sharp teeth, but doesn't bite." Suki explains. She picks up Momo, who begins shrieking at her. The loud, protesting noises fade out as Momo relaxes into Suki's grip. "He'll get used to you in no time." She says, transferring the sleeping animal to her. Toph reluctantly takes the sleeping animal and holds him awkwardly. His soft fur rubs against her skin as she adjusts the dead weight. Momo makes a comical noise, and snuggles closer to Toph.

"Umm…how do I wake Momo up?"

"I wouldn't if I were you." Sokka warns. "Momo is pretty cranky if he's woken up early."

She grumbles underneath her breath, trying to get comfy beneath the animal. Momo just stretches out further, and even goes as far to start drooling on her. She groans as his drool slowly falls down her arm.

_He drools like a waterfall._

* * *

><p>Toph can't be more happy than she is now.<p>

"Yes! Yes! Ground! Sweet, sweet ground!" Toph launches herself off the flying bison, and lands on the soft grass. She sighs, and falls down on her back. Silky tendrils of long, sweet smelling grass tickle her face and feet. It's like floating in an ocean, except she isn't drowning.

Suddenly she becomes cold with a memory.

_Toph is leaning forward in the thicket, warm evening air pressing on her sides. She presses her hair back, and digs deeper into the earth for some answers._

_Come out come out, Jun-Lee. I know you're in there._

_Toph is tracking a mission that'll bring in a lot of money, and reputation around the Earth Kingdom. She is to find General Haku's daughter by tommorow's sundown, and bring her back unharmed. Easy enough, seeing how the description of his daughter is "mousy, petite, and scrawnier than straw." Jun-Lee's turned out to be a much harder target. Toph's gone in circles trying to pick up her light, just barely there footprints. The only way she can track her prey is by the cracked branches and disturbed piles of earth. Even these are far and few between._

_She's finally found her first footprint… and it seems to be the last one. She leans forward, trying to hear some kind of noise, or alert that Jun-Lee's there. The faint rustling of wind is taken over by a cracking branch, and a sharp intake of breath. Toph smiles maliciously, and steps forward._

_One can imagine her shock as she tilted forward, ankles held down by the thick swamp mud. She gasps as cold water fills her mouth, and begins coughing and spluttering out water. It feels like the water is trying to pull her down to the bottom and never let go; not until she has drowned to death._

_How did this happen? She thinks, as she thrashes around in the blood-warm waters of the swamp. It's suffocating her, the water. Her muffled screams suddenly become audible as she gets a grip on the ground, and bursts up for fresh oxygen. Jun Lee lets out a small gasp, and sprints away. Toph retreats to the bank she has just come from, gratefully resting her arms and feet on the ground again. _

_She's a rock. And rock's do not float. Shuddering, Toph moves away from her almost watery-grave, and looks for another way around.__ Bounty is on the line and she can't risk losing money or her reputation to some mousy girl. She is Toph Bei Fong, and a Bei Fong never goes or poor or loses._

_Ironically, Toph catches Jun-Lee flailing around in quicksand right before dawn. The crying girl is more than happy to go with Toph._

"Man this grass is so soft!" A body suddenly lands next to hers. She gives a small yelp as a gust of air blows her over on her backside, and ruffles her tightly bound hair. Small, curly-q strands stick up in the air, and Toph annoyedly smacks them back down.

"Watch where you blow that air." She growls, moving a good five feet away from Aang.

"Oh, sorry Toph." The way he cheerfully says this (or maybe that's just how he always sounds) tells her he's knocked people over before. Something hard pokes Toph in the butt. She swivels around and picks up a small, heavy rock. A sudden, revengeful idea comes to mind.

"Think fast!" Toph shoots the rock at Aang. It makes a beeline for his back, only within a few feet of him. He turns around as the pebble sails towards him, and quickly jumps to the toes of his feet and side steps it.

_Wouldn't have been easier to just stop the rock with earthbending?_

Yes. Toph knows that earthbending in that case could have been much more easier to do then dodge the little rock. Airbending is his element, but shouldn't the Avatar know how to crumble a little rock?

"_Ow! Who threw this rock?__ Momo!" _Sokka's loud voice wipes away any silence left in the group, and is immediately followed by offended remarks from Momo. Toph snickers, but doesn't tell him that she threw the rock.

"Leave Momo out of this! He never did anything to you." Suki says, stepping between the two. A brief silence ensues, until Sokka breaks away, muttering something about "evil lemurs." He tells the group he's going to go look for dinner. Zuko decides to go look for some wood for a campfire, and goes with Sokka.

"I'll stay here with Appa and Momo and try to fish something." She climbs up Appa's saddle with ease, and pulls out a crude fishing rod. "I've caught more fish on this thing in 2 weeks than Sokka has in 3 years." She chuckles and goes to look for a spot next to the water. Toph sighs with relief, happy that she doesn't have to go anywhere near the water.

"So Toph. What do you want to do? Cook? Clean the gunk between Appa's toes?"

Toph shrugs. "I carry my own weight."

Aang frowns a little, or at least that's what Toph imagines he's doing. It's actually more of a slight droop than scowl.

"Oh. Well I'm going to go find some food. All Sokka usually finds is nuts and rocks. You can come if you want."

_I could get a better view of my surroundings. Just in case things turn bad I'll have a place to run._

She quickly scratches that.

_Better yet if they cross me, I'll have somewhere to stash the bodies._

* * *

><p><em>Later that Day…<em>

* * *

><p>"So Toph, tell me more about your experience as a bounty hunter."<p>

His curiosity rubs her the wrong way, but she complies.

"It's basically just listening to the ground for a long time, trying to pick out differences and areas that people might have crossed." Toph has a few white stones in her hands, picking them up as Aang occasionally flies to a nearby tree to grab food. She can tell which stones are white stones by their density and weight. Also because he told her they are white.

The island they are staying at isn't very large. It has long, gently sloping hills, and a population of peaceful, fuzzy sheep. The group, meaning Sokka Aang Suki and Zuko, must have been here before. They know where to get the food and even where to set up camp in the secluded isle.

"Is listening to the ground kind of like earthbending."

"Listening to the ground IS earthbending, Twinkletoes! You can't just punch the ground and expect a boulder to pop up. You have to listen, and feel for things that are already there." She huffs, and stomps a small white stone up to her arm pile. There are about fifteen or so, enough for her to line the campfire. "I'm done here, do you have enough food for them?" Toph says them because she doesn't consider herself part of the group. Obviously Aang does.

"Yeah, we each get two, whatever these fruits are."

At the mention of fruit, Toph's stomach does a flip flop. She drops a few rocks, clutching her gut. Sweat comes only a few moments afterwards, and the effort to keep from coughing and/or sneezing nearly turns her red. A few more rocks drop, and the distruption seems to anger her stomach even more.

Slowly Toph sinks to her knees, stomach growling like a jaguar. She keeps in the little whimpers she wants to let out, and instead focuses on the ground: soft and unyielding.

"Toph? Toph!" In an instant Aang's by her side again, worry coming off of him in waves. Toph, through her fuzzy senses, can still smell the sweet lemongrass and orange scent coming from Aang.

"I'm okay." She rasps. And her words are true, as her constrictor stomach ache and chronic sweating have disappeared. Toph moves away from Aang, her face slightly heated, and collects her rocks again. She walks towards the direction she believes is camp, leaving Aang behind.

For some reason she can feel his intent gaze on her neck. It chills her, the thought of knowing someone's watching.

* * *

><p>And without further disruption, Toph sinks into the soft ground, propping her head up with her arm. She allows her eyelids to close over her foggy eyes, and transfer her mind over to her dream state. She uses her stress-releasing technique, tightly clenching her muscles, then relaxing them to the point that she feels like jello. It works every time, even at the times when she has had to sleep on hard desert grounds.<p>

_That reminds me of that mercenary. What was her name, Loni? Oh yeah! Chit-Sang's girlfriend. She gave me a run for my money__ alright, but I got her eventually._

She shuts her eyes and allows the memories to return to her.

_There's a loud bang as Loni finds some other object in her house to hurl at Toph. Toph ducks as a large garbage can top whizzes over her head, nearly taking some of her hair with it too._

"_Loni! I know you're in there! Just make it easy on everyone else and come out-" Toph shouts. Her sentence is cut short as her chest hits the dirt again. This time Loni has thrown the entire trash can. _

_No wonder this woman is strong enough to kill a man. Toph thinks in awe and slight terror. She has just single handedly thrown a full garbage can nearly twenty feet. In the description the fire nation general read aloud to her, Loni is wanted for the manslaughter of Lieutnent Fou. Also for the destruction of multiple bars and conning men out of their money; Men specifically. She's described as a five foot two, brunette (that part didn't matter, nor did her eye color) with a weight of 123 pounds and a "deceptively sweet personality." She lives in the town of…_

_Toph doesn't even need to know what town she lives in. A woman like that probably gets her money by conning idiotic men. Around these parts (as Toph has heard) all the men go over to a place called "The Compound" for drinks and other business of that sort. It only takes a few minutes for Toph to find Loni in the mix of giggly women, and when she does, things turn ugly real fast._

_It starts with shouting, then screaming, and pretty soon Loni is being dragged out by two cranky looking bartneders. Toph follows, ready to swoop in and arrest the woman the instant the guards let go._

_Until a bounty hunters' hands are on their prey, it's anyone's kill. One of the first things Toph learns in the business. In her first year of hunting, she's given a nasty bruise on her right thigh that never seems to go away. It isn't from prey, but another ruthless, territorial bounty hunter. June is her name. Toph's never crossed that woman, and hopes she never has to again. She's molded herself into the same state of mind, ready to attack anyone who tries to steal her prey._

_As the night goes on, Loni grows weary of throwing things at Toph, and settles for locking her door instead. Toph kicks down the door, and uses her custom earth handcuffs to detain Loni. She is turned over to the Fire Nation in a mere few minutes. _

_And yet Toph never forgets what Loni mutters to her that night._

"_You think this is over? Fat chance, bounty hunter. I will find you and kill you. The others you've sent to jail will help me too. Toph Bei Fong you are dead meat."_

_Toph blows it off, but still allows fear to harbor in her mind. She's on someone's hit list now, and they know her name too. __It's just part of her job, being a bounty hunter. That includes the danger that comes with it. Whether the danger comes from her prey or the merciless terrain, Toph knows what she's in the business for._

_The thrill. _

* * *

><p><strong>As promised, <strong>**a longer chapter. T****his just ****barely made it to the update date, and I'm surprised I've been able to do all this****. I've been ****REALLY busy, first trying to beat this prodigy viola player in my orchestra (I got first chair though :D) and I've also taken up tutoring on Mondays and Tuesdays. (I'm the tutor, just saying :) Tutoring takes up most of my evening, and of course after that**** its hours of studying, practicing, and viola. I'm trying to work out a schedule that'll allow me to give you guys the best chapters possible, but Thursday nights can't happen anymore. It might have to be every other Thursday or Saturday if I can manage ev****en that.**

**On a much better note, OH MY M&M's! I'VE GOTTEN REVIEWS! Thank you to Seamew, whose long reviews have inspired me to triple proof-read my work and spell check twice.**

**One last thing: For those of you with serious writer's block try following the li****nk on my profile for writing music. I LOVE that song :D, and it's really helpful to clear your mind to get writing.**


	7. Evidence at the Island

**Nothing much to say. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own ****Avatar the Last Airbender.**

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><p><strong>Blind Bounty<strong>

**Chapter Seven**

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><p><em><strong>The Island…Day One<strong>_

The first person Toph's going to interview is Aang. He seems to be the closest to Katara, even though they aren't related.

"Can you tell me everything that's happened since the incident?" The bounty hunter asks evenly. Aang is like a frightened cat; any aggressive sounding questions are an automatic turn-off, and will likely pressure him to hold back information. She can't have that happening if she's to find Katara and collect the money for it.

_The money. _Toph cannot wait to feel the clink of gold in her fingers, more to spend on…

"Right." He takes a deep breath. "Well it all started the day Zuko tried to join our group at the Air Temple." he begins. A solemn quiet takes place as he begins visualizing that hectic day. "We didn't know what Zuko was planning, and we were all strongly opposed to him joining. Especially Katara."

"Why is that?"

"Well while we were in Ba sing Se, the two had been arrested and thrown in the same jail cell. I'm not sure what happened down there, but when I came I saw them standing very…close."

"You don't sound very happy about that." _In fact he sounds downright murderous. _Toph decides.

"Oh, we've had plenty of run-ins with Zuko before, and I wasn't sure what was happening."

_What a lame excuse. Guess they don't teach Avatars how to lie anymore._

"Riiigght. Okay so you guys obviously didn't trust him, so how did he get into your group?"

"Well he had sent an assassin after us; the one that uses his third eye on his forehead to blow things up. We named him Combustion man. Combustion man had tracked us down to the Western Air Temple, and tried to blow us right off the cliff. He almost killed me, but Zuko swung in just in time to knock his aim off, and even told him not to hunt me anymore. At that point I think we knew that Zuko was on our side."

"Alright. Enough about that let me hear what big thing happened next."

"The Boiling Rock. Sokka's father was taken prisoner during the invasion, and he went with Zuko to bust him out. They also found Suki there."

And on it went, Aang informing Toph all of the dramatic happenings, up until the time Zuko and Katara went on another one of Zuko's "field trips" to visit a man named Ron Yah. Then he begins, in a way, closing up to her prodding and questioning. Every time she asks a direct question about Katara, Aang closes up and dodges her question. It's frustrating and slightly angering, and Toph's having trouble not raising her voice at him. She backtracks immediately to a much easier question.

"Where is the island Katara was kidnapped at?"

He hesitates at her sudden switch in tactics. "The one we're at now."

"Good. Then you bring me to the spot Katara was taken." She stands. "We might be able to find some extra evidence."

"Umm, we've already searched there."

She smirks at him. "Yes, but remind yourself who the bounty hunter is."

Thick, tension filled air forms a thick wall between the two. Aang sighs and it dissipates.

"Fine. Fine. Follow me."

_Good. I didn't even have to use my interrogation techniques._

It's a mild, breezy day. Toph can hear the sound of Aang's shirt flapping around in the wind, and it's really starting to bug her. She doesn't have her cape on now; someone must have taken it off when she had gotten that fever. It must be on Appa's saddle with the rest of her things.

"We're here." Aang says, stopping right at the sand's edge. The roar of the ocean sounds like a hungry monster waiting to eat her. Toph takes a few steps away from the water, and closer to the whistling grass fields. He points to a spot on the ground, but Toph can't tell where.

"What are you trying to show me?"

"Can't you see-…Oh." Aang corrects his embarrassing mistake, and rubs his neck. "Here let me show you."

A warm hand envelops Toph's small, fisted one, and guides it towards the sand. The fabric of his shirt rubs against her neck and his warm breath is near her ear. She shivers, and jerks her hand out of his.

"I think I have it now." She says, stopping near the sand. That odd tingly feeling in her stomach makes her shudder, but all thoughts of Aang flee her mind as she focuses on the rough, just barely there footprint. It had just narrowly made it past high tide's beating, right on the edge of the ocean. She motions for Aang to stay back, and starts scanning the shifting sand around her.

She notices the area around that footprint has patches of hard dirt. The only thing that makes sand hard is heat.

"Azula can firebend, right?"

Aang nods, and after a moment's hesitation, says yes.

"Okay so Katara was definitely taken by force."

Aang sounds like he's about to say something, and she holds up her hand.

"Wait. Can you confirm that this is Katara's footprint?"

Aang nods, but his heart doesn't quite agree with his thoughts.

She reaches around the sides of the footprint, and digs her fingerprints deeply into the sides. Aang watches in mute amazement and awe as the ground around the footprint begins hardening, and turning into a pale white color. Toph takes her hands out, and pulls a perfectly melded version of the footprint out. She holds it out for Aang to see, then places it next to her on the sand.

"You got to teach me that!"

"Maybe." She puts off his hopes for a moment. "I'll take this to look at later. For now I just want to inspect the area underneath the footprint."

"Okay. Do you need any help?"

"I work alone. You can leave now."

"Oh, right." The avatar moves away from his stationary position, and pulls out his staff vertically to his body. He quickly thumps it on the ground, and takes off in a whoosh of air.

_Alone at last._

Toph stoops down next to the sand, and lightly skims her fingers over the grainy surface. At the slightest dip, she stops and feels the width, depth, and shape of it. So far she's found three footprints, all of them Katara's…or Azula's.

Right as her fingers touch an especially defined, gargantuan print, a tall wave of water collapses on her head. The salty, stinging water rushes in her ears, and infiltrates her nose. She snorts out the water, coughing and spluttering curses that can make a sailor turn red.

After shouting nearly every word that should _never _be said aloud, Toph shakes herself out like a tiger-dillo and tries to get back to where she was. With each step her feet bring up the wet, pasty sand, until she realizes she's stepped all over the evidence.

Toph growls, grabbing her bangs with fists. She just wants to detonate right now she feels so useless.

And now to make it worse, Suki seems to be coming over to check on her.

Quick as a mouse, Toph wrings her bangs out and pats down some hair that's come out. She crosses her arms, and glares in the direction of Suki. A few moments later, Suki's standing in front of her.

"Hey Toph. You seem a little down."

She snorts, and picks a piece of seaweed off her shoulder. Suki coughs.

"I'm guessing Aang's told you about the… situation then."

Toph's eyes go wide, and she jerks her head up.

"What do you mean by 'situation'?"

"Toph…we can't pay you. Not in full cash at least. We're completely out of money."

Hazy, foggy confusion clogs Toph's thoughts, slowing her actions. Then it's replaced by a sharper, more tangible emotion: fury.

"_What did you just say?" _she hisses between tightly clenched teeth. Her jaw aches with the strain she's putting on them.

"We can't pay you Toph. All our money seems to be-"

Toph holds her hand, stopping Suki from saying anything else.

"Not my problem. No money, no Katara. I want to be dropped off at the nearest Earth Kingdom sea port."

"But Toph! Please you have to help us, we don't know anyone else that will help us…we've tried everything." Suki's begging is so unbecoming; Toph's upper lip begins to curl in disgust.

"Not happening sugar."

"Why not?" she asks calmly. Toph is a little taken back by her blunt, reasonable question. She ignores her, and begins moving towards somewhere she can be alone. That's it…alone time is what she needs. Away from others and away from problems.

"Toph you can hear me. I need to know why you can't help someone who is in trouble."

"In trouble? Aang is just being a lovesick puppy! Once the war is over-"

"Aang won't be able to do a thing until he knows Katara is safe. You should have seen him before you came. He would just stare off into space, wouldn't say a word over dinner. Toph it _scared us._" She whispers.

_Why is she telling me all of this? Why do I even need to know?_

"Toph, look, we aren't asking you to fight an army. All we need is help before Aang or Azula does something drastic."

Toph's emotions are in a battleground of turmoil, confusion, and…pity. She does feel bad for Aang, and can't squish this feeling underneath a rock like she usually does. No, this is something that she can't just leave alone.

Her eyes close, and she presses the cold tips of her fingers to the hot, racing temples on the sides of her head. The ocean crashes and destroys itself behind her.

_This isn't a hard decis__ion. _Toph isn't, nor will she ever, be the reason why someone can't find happiness in their life.

"Alright. Alright. I'll still work for you."

"That's great Toph."

And for the second time that day alone, Toph is embraced by a complete stranger. Suki gives her a warm, heart-felt hug. The kind that come straight from the heart, and only from there.

* * *

><p><em>Three hours later<em>

* * *

><p>Toph is having a lot more difficulty distinguishing between the Azula's footprint, Katara's footprint, and the unrecognizable third one she managed to salvage from the sea. The footprints are all laid out near the grass, far away from that sea. She's trying to concentrate on the depth, length, and overall size, but she really can't do anything with Zuko and Aang practicing their fire bending.<p>

"Hey Zuko, Aang! Keep it down!" she shouts above the barrage of fire. The flames against the evening air sounds like a large funnel of wind sucking up everything in its path.

They don't hear her right away.

A loud "OW!" is followed by another, deeper "OUCH!"

"What was that for Toph?" Aang asks, rubbing his sore bald head. Zuko brushes the sand out of his hair. Toph tosses another hardened sand ball in their direction, sending them scattering for cover.

"I'm trying to work. Take your little bonfire somewhere else."

"But I need to practice!"

"No kidding." Zuko mutters. "You roar like a…" Zuko trails off, rubbing his neck uncertainly.

"Like a what?"

Zuko doesn't say anything, so Toph speaks up.

"I don't care how Aang is suppose to 'roar' he needs to either help or take you and his talentless skill in fire bending away from here."

"Fine." Aang says. He picks up his discarded shirt from the ground, and walks away. Toph sighs, and looks at the footprints again. The only difference she can tell between the two footprints (the one's she believe are either Katara's or Azula's), is a slight dip near the toes. Other than that they are practically the exact same.

She hasn't seen the two in person, and no one knows Katara's weight either.

"Which one is Katara's footprint?"

Toph doesn't jump at the sound of Zuko's voice, as she had seen him coming a few minutes ago. She shakes her head.

"I can't decide. These footprints are the exact same."

Zuko leans in closer, probably squinting at the two molds. He taps one.

"The one on your left, that one is her."

"Katara?"

"No, Azula. Trust me I know my sister."

"I don't though. How did you find out?"

He trails his finger along the front of the print, and stops at the toes.

"Firebenders need to move constantly, so she'll always be on her toes."

"Ohhhh! That makes sense." Toph puts the footprint on the left and holds the right one up. She smiles as she says: "We have Katara's footprint!"

Zuko nods, and begins to stand up. "What about the third footprint? It's big."

"Yes, I'm not sure who it belongs to. They must have a very heavy foot, because it's nearly an inch deep." She gestures towards the front. "The toes are square too."

"I'm not too sure…Let's bring it back to the others."

* * *

><p><em>Dusk<em>

* * *

><p>Toph has never been at a dinner table where someone constantly berates her to blow on her food, sit up straight, or chew with her mouth close. Dinner with her parents is like having a drill sergeant breathing down her neck. It's almost as degrading as listening to the Boulder preach about himself.<p>

But tonight? None of that. She even laughs when Sokka burps.

_Is this what friends are like?_

If so, Toph wishes her parents had let her go to school with regular kids. Even if she did, Toph's certain she couldn't have found a group of people like this anywhere else.


	8. A Crap, I mean, Scrap of Paper

**A/N: For the first half of the story I tried using a different writing technique… I think I'm gonna keep using it.**

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><p><strong>Blind Bounty<strong>

**Chapter Eight**

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><p>The noise that awakens the sleeping girl comes from the beak of a chubby, gray mourning dove resting on the branch of a tall, unmoving tree. Wailing, the dove stretches a serene, melodious note out before trailing off into oblivion. Silence takes the dove's voice away, and replaces it with a deathly silence known as the calm before the storm. A grim kind of gray washes each color until they dull into one merged hue of nothingness. In that same color tone, the sky turns itself into a war zone with splashes of gray, white, and ominous black threaded into the mix. They form above the choppy, foamy waves. On the dawn's skyline, the lines of clouds steadily roll into the cove of the island.<p>

* * *

><p><em>Toph<em>

* * *

><p>Unease.<p>

The first emotion Toph wakes to that morning. It rims her stomach like a heavy metal chain, pulled tighter with each labored movement. Her head feels submerged in the clutches of slumber, pounding against her skull. Thick mist clings to her limbs, tendrils falling off like dead, black snakes. She shivers, and rubs the leftover feeling of stickiness from her arms and legs. The scent of wet grass and the dying fragrance of wilting flowers makes Toph's stomach turn inside out. She groans and curls back into the warmth of her arm. The absence of taste in her mouth reminds her that she needs a drink.

The light pattering of morning rain on her dirtied toes reminds her the only water source on the island is in the jar next to Appa. With much resilience, Toph pushes her seemingly heavy head off her arm and crawls out the front of her earth tent. She stumbles towards Appa, who raises his head in neutral acknowledgement. Seeing only Toph, he falls back asleep. The pot filled with water is only a foot smaller than Toph, but nonetheless still very tall. In her haste to get some water, she quickly removes the top. Dew makes the smooth ceramic surface more slippery than usual, and she almost drops it on her toe. Her quick reflexes allow her to catch the lid, and lay it gently on the ground.

The world is deceptively peaceful at the moment, and the tantalizing sensation of lurking crazy is starting to seep into her thoughts like cold rainwater. Every vibration in the earth resembles lumbering, heavy monsters only found in the worst nightmares, and the grass tickling her ankles are damp, long claws closing in around her ankles. Even the sheep are giving her the chills.

If there is suppose to be some kind of warning for the incoming danger, a warning sign hasn't been given. This is the time Toph relies heavily on her instincts to guide her and her senses to get there.

_Sight fails often, but instincts always prevail._

Toph replaces the lid on the water jar, and raises her arms over her overworked back and rises to her toes.

_Crack. _The sudden noise doesn't come from her spine, it's much too faint to be that. Instead it resembles the sound of a twig being shattered to pieces. There is only a small clump of trees, and those are in the very back of the island.

_Crack. _

_There it goes again. _Toph cocks her head sideways, listening for the tantalizing footsteps of a person. She tunes out the beating of her heart, and the racing of her warm blood. When that's done, she finally hears it…the footsteps.

_Creaaaaak. _

Something made of metal creaks, before thumping downwards.

"Uh guys. This may sound weird but an all metal-man is coming towards us." The group begins to stir, pushing themselves up from their comfortable sleeping bags.

"What did you say Toph?" Sokka mumbles dreamily from his sleeping dragon. He snuggles further into his pillow.

"I said an all metal-man is coming towards us!" Toph snatches a small pebble from the ground, and skillfully aims it at Sokka's head. It reaches her target with a satisfying _thunk. _"Ow Toph! What was that for?"

"Oh stop whining and man up already." By now everyone is awake, and curious to know why the two are bickering this early in the morning. Aang stands up. "What's-"

_Snnnnnnn. _The deep intake of air roars through Toph's ears. She feels the negative energy of the man rolling off in waves. Call it instinct, but she knows something bad is about to happen.

"Get down!" Toph shouts. She launches herself at the group, forcing them down with the influence of her voice alone. An explosion rockets through the camp, detonating with a noise louder than a large waterfall. She gapes at the intensity of the blast, as it batters her eardrums ruthlessly. She winces as yet another explosion destroys whatever she thought was left of her ear. Her ears throb, blocking out any noise.

"_Toph." _The name is a whisper in her ear.

"TOPH!" Sokka shouts in her ear. She's jerked to her feet, and moved forcibly over the ground. "We got to move!"

Suddenly Toph is swooped up into a pair of wiry, muscled arms, and then thrown roughly onto Appa's saddle. She rolls until she hits the side. Her ears still ring in pain, and isn't helped by a consecutive explosion. Luckily this one is far enough away to stop any further hearing damage.

"Appa! Yip Yip!"

Never before has Toph been more relieved to hear those obnoxious words come from Aang's mouth. _What does yip yip mean anyway? _

"Hey Aang, what does yip yip mean?"

"Are you really going to ask at a time like this?" Sokka exclaims. "Combustion man is back!"

_And what is that supposed to mean?_

Scowling, she throws her hands in the air "Well maybe asking weird questions is how I cope! And no one seems to want to tell me anything around here! That same feeling from the morning is back, and heavier than the silence that has taken place.

_Why are they so hostile towards me?_

Unshed tears sting her eyes, but Toph refuses to let them fall.

"I know none of you know about me, but the least you could do is let me in on something that might possibly _kill me." _She says, crossing her arms.

"We aren't holding anything back from you Toph." Aang says firmly. Toph wants to believe him, but for some reason she just can't. (Even if his heartbeat says so) Something is really, _really _bugging her about these people, but she just can't place her finger on it. It's some kind of, thick emotion towards the group she can't decipher. It makes her usually sharp mind fuzzier than Appa, and especially when Aang's around. Paranoia?

_It's a possibility. I don't want to mess this mission up. _

Toph really only wants one thing: To find Katara and go back to her own solitary life. Alone. She doesn't want any family or friends, they will just get in the way. Her personality is enough for a friend…more than enough.

Suddenly she feels something light dropped onto her lap, and senses Momo's petite footsteps pad towards her.

"What's this Momo?" she asks, picking up the object. She presses her fingers against the edges. Suddenly she groans, and throws it onto Appa's saddle.

"What's gotten into you?" Suki asks, sounding a little annoyed. Toph rolls her sightless eyes. She gestures towards the item.

"That! Momo brought me a crap...err. scrap of paper."

"And?"

"Let's just say me and books don't get along…" she says dryly, letting her words sink in.

"Oh…sorry."

"You're not the only one." Toph mutters underneath her breath. Zuko reaches across the saddle, and swipes the piece of paper up. Toph (somewhat impatiently) waits for Zuko to finish reading. When he does, he drops the piece of paper in surprise.

"Sokka, look at this." He says earnestly. Sokka scrabbles over towards the prince, and skims the page.

"Didn't expect that."

"Well, what's happening?" Toph questions. Sokka gestures for Suki to read it too, and she gasps.

"Toph you're a genius!"

"Umm, yes. Yes I am!"

_Now what on earth makes me a genius?_

"This is just what we needed! Aang! Aang! We have a lead on Katara!"

"What?" Aang ties Appa's reins to his horn, and jumps back into the saddle. He sounds more eager than a child opening up their first gift.

"This is part of a patent for some kind of…and it has to do with Azula!"

"What's that? Read it aloud!" Toph demands, though she doesn't know what a 'patent' is. She tries to stifle the excitement in her voice as she cranes forward to hear Sokka read.

"Yuki Chan, retired Admiral of the Western Dragon Fleet, approves of the building and design of this machine." Sokka unfolds the paper, and gasps…again.

"This is the exact same machine Azula chased us with a while back."

"And?"

"I know him…" Zuko says. "He works at a fire festival now."

"Unless he retired." Toph says.

"No, he should be around…" Zuko thinks for a moment. "Twenty two."

Toph's eyebrows shoot up. "That's pretty young, are you sure?"

"Positive."

Toph slaps her hands together, and grins. "Alright then! We just go to this little fire festival and ask this Yuki guy a few questions."

Zuko snorts. "It's not that easy Toph, you can't just sneak into the fire nation."

Aang coughs. "Actually, we can. We just need to find some new clothes for Toph, and use our old…liberated ones to sneak into the festival."

Toph grins. "Sweet."

* * *

><p><strong>I'm sorry this one was so short. I guarantee this is one of the last boring chapters. The next one will have a lot more Taang, and show the rough side of Toph I absolutely adore. <strong>


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